Proof that Derleth could write a decent pulp horror story as long as he stayed away from anything Lovecraftian. I'm not sure, and don't really care, why these were all written under the pseudonym of Stephen Grendon unless Derleth's name had just gotten a bad enough name as a writer that he felt he had to hide it. Knowing Derleth it probably was because he wanted to put his own stories in his edited collections and didn't want it so obvious that he was including two of his own stories (one as Derlth and one as Grendon). Instilled with a little more grue then the average Derleth story. ( )

A set of shorter horror stories by a competent practitioner. Definitely the kind of thing Arkham House published. ( )

This is a collection of horror stories that Derleth wrote for Weird Tales in the '40s. Fairly high quality pulp horror, though Derleth does have the unfortunate habit of recycling plots, with tales of posthomous revenge making up at least half the stories in this collection. Another prevalent element is that of loneliness, often that of a child who has lost an important parental figure. Derleth paints this quite skillfuly, so the air of sadness it lends to those stories feels more like a personal touch than a recylced trope. Only a story or two really achieve something novel enough to place them above quality pulp horror. ( )

This was a long time coming. I bought When Graveyards Yawn in 1978 and have just got a round to reading it (2014). Whilst my life hasn't been impoverished by its previous absence, Derleth's collection of ghost stories is still a good one.

There aren't any overtly gruesome shocks, hints and suggestions being more Derelth's style, dictated, no doubt, by the mores of the time in which he was writing - the 1940s - and there is nothing of the cosmic horror of his literary hero, H.P. Lovecraft. What there is is a set of atmospheric stories dealing mainly with returns from "the other side". There is usually some malevolence, though often against a deservingly unpleasant victim. Endangered children, in particular, seem to be protected by the shades of the departed in Derleth's world, although youth is no guarantee of escape from a spectral slaying.

The first story, Mr George is probably the best of the bunch, but it's not a downhill ride from there, as there are plenty of other interesting tales. I liked the narrator's voice in The Man on B-17, told by the driver of a locomotive who seems oblivious to the supernatural element of his story, evident to the reader.

Dead Man's Shoes is an interesting WWI revenge story involving haunted boots, and The Tsantsa in the Parlour is a very well done supernatural murder plot.

I wasn't so keen on Parrington's Pool, which gave me more information on fly fishing than I felt I was in need of, but all of the other stories had something to commend them.

I think that my 9p investment 36 years ago has repaid itself. ( )